I'm new to it all.....

[Looby-Blu]

Hi All!

I'm new to this forum and new to veggie growing, so I was hoping for a bit of help and possibly a few nudges in the right direction.

So far i'm really just in the planning and buying stage. I'm planning on three or four plots in my garden all approximately 120cm sq. I'm having to dig into the lawn and I thought i'd use pallet collars to segregate them and also protect them slightly from the two small feral boys I have. I thought I'd add a couple of bags of multi purpose compost to each plot and possibly a bag of garden centre manure. Then I suppose the beds will be raised slightly which, I kind of like the idea of.

I've bought (but still waiting for) New potatoes, Tomatoes, Squash, Green beans, Sweet Corn, Carrots so far, but I keeps seeing other stuff and need to try and not get carried away. I've no idea how much room each veg will need to get a decent crop - so I guess I'll need help with that. I'm also doing strawberries, but they'll go in a trug on their own.

What does everyone think? Have I missed something that i'll need? Is there any other easy growing veg that I could get, that would fit into my beds or do you think I have enough for now?

Oh yes, one more thing..... slugs..... what the ruddy flip do I do about them??? Is there a natural way to get rid of them? I'm trying to encourage birds into the garden, but I understand that could take some time. I want to avoid pellets - again because of the feral children that will eat ANYTHING including poisonous little blue granules. So, what about a beer trap? Do they work? Although giving a beer to a slug just sounds super hospitable to me.

Thanks in adance for any advice you can sling my way.

[Capsid]

I'd say that some of your veg such as potatoes and squash and perhaps sweetcorn will occupy a fair bit of space. I can see the squash will easily fill one of the plots on its own. Sweetcorn needs to be planted in blocks about 30cm apart so that would occupy another plot. Perhaps you could grow the potatoes in buckets instead?

Beer traps do work, or perhaps you could try copper strips around the plot borders?

If your feral boys will eat anything then they will love the fresh veg you grow. Although I'd challenge you to get them to eat Brussels sprouts!

[Looby-Blu]

Hmmm, buckets? Like, just regular buckets?? What about an old baby bath?? I'm just wondering how deep it needs to be? Would a baby bath be deep enough? Oh hang on - what about drainage? OH! JUST TAKE THE PLUG OUT!? Would that work?

Ok - so from your post Mark, I have definately decided to go with the four beds then. Any more than that would be pushing it with my landlord I reckon!

Soooo, squash in one. Thats definate. Maybe I could just grow a few sweetcorn. To be honest, they're really just for my 6 yr old - he liked the picture on the packet. I don't really want to take up loads of space that can be better used with something else.

(How I type is how I think - sorry about the babble )

[selfraising]

Hi, you could grow the squash around the bottom of the sweetcorn and the green beans inbetween the sweetcorn.

[Looby-Blu]

Hi, you could grow the squash around the bottom of the sweetcorn and the green beans inbetween the sweetcorn.

Won't the green beans get in the way? Or does it just mean the sweetcorn needs to be 30 cm away from each other? Can you grow stuff inbetween then?

Ohhh maaaan, my head hurts already!!

[TEB]

Spuds take up a lot of room and you cannot really grow anything around them because of the earthing up, sweetcorn needs quite a bit of space but you can grow other stuff around it, carrots and onions dont like going into a bed that just been manured as it causes forking.

[Sweepster]

If you can find room for a pond, you'll get frogs who'll obligingly eat your slugs. Kids love ponds and all the wildlife they attract

[Looby-Blu]

Right carrots don't like manure. Thats definately useful. No manure for the carrot bed then. What else should I put in with them then that will also thrive without manure?

OR is manure ABSOLUTELY necessary?? Do my spuds like manure?

[TEB]

spuds love manure as do runner beans (as long as its well rotted), you could also grow leeks and parsnips in with the carrots.

[Pickle]

I know someone else mentioned it but you could try the potatoes in bags. Somewhere on this site someone mentioned that they had bought a couple of those pop up garden waste bins from poundland and they are ideal for potatoes and only cost a pound each which would leave you a bed free for something else.

oh and welcome to the vine! I've only joined recently and everyone is really friendly and helpful.

[Looby-Blu]

I know someone else mentioned it but you could try the potatoes in bags. Somewhere on this site someone mentioned that they had bought a couple of those pop up garden waste bins from poundland and they are ideal for potatoes and only cost a pound each which would leave you a bed free for something else.

oh and welcome to the vine! I've only joined recently and everyone is really friendly and helpful.

I think bags might be the way for me to go. I was just having a nose around the boards and found a video for growing spuds (is it tattimans?? Did I just make that up? )) and realised that rather than taking up valuable bed space I can just grow em in an old compost bag. I have LOADS of those! So, watching that vid, he said I needed fertiliser. Can I use manure then?

[selfraising]

[QUOTE=Looby-Blu;408693]Won't the green beans get in the way? Or does it just mean the sweetcorn needs to be 30 cm away from each other? Can you grow stuff inbetween then?

Ohhh maaaan, my head hurts already!! [/QUOT

This site might be useful to you. The method I suggested is called The Three Sisters way of growing. The green beens climb up the sweetcorn.

[Looby-Blu]

This site might be useful to you. The method I suggested is called The Three Sisters way of growing. The green beens climb up the sweetcorn.

Ooooh clever!!

Ummm which site? THIS site? Or was there supposed to be a link?

Hang on, I'll google it.

[Eyren]

Bran makes a good slug barrier - it came out tops in a GYO test last year - though you do have to replace it regularly. I did something similar with wood shavings (small animal bedding from Tesco), as I didn't have access to bran when I needed it, and it kept the slugs and snails off my brassicas a treat. They don't like crawling over dry absorbant surfaces, and if they try to eat it they swell up and die (but are non-poisonous to wildlife) - all round good stuff!

[selfraising]

Ooooh clever!!

Ummm which site? THIS site? Or was there supposed to be a link?

Hang on, I'll google it.

Oops b@@@er! Here you go
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